AirBnB house rented for party that ended with a shooting

A highly publicized pool party at a gated home rented out on AirBNB ended with shots fired.

Author:
James Keith

Published:
8:21 PM CDT August 1, 2017

Updated:
8:21 PM CDT August 1, 2017

The owner of a home on Cielo Vista rents it out nightly on AirBnB. It's supposed to be a place where people can get away and spend the night, not have parties.

Rules listed on the AirBnB ad for the home clearly state that there are no parties or events allowed in the residence.

But for $599, the gated home became host to a highly publicized pool party, where attendees paid as much as $15 a person to attend.

Video posted online showed organizers walking through the home earlier in the day. No one predicted the event would end with gunfire and sheriff's deputies responding on Monday morning.

"All we heard was gunshots from outside. We didn't know where it was coming from, we just heard a bunch of gunshots," said Jaylon Myers, the host of the event.

Authorities said that uninvited guests fired shots when they were told to leave. Moments later, they said Christopher King, 18, accidentally shot himself in the leg.

Myers said that a man named Greg arranged the location, and Greg just showed up to make it a success.

"I'm not the one who rents the house so, I mean, that's really out of my control what they do and how they want to do it. But, I mean, they're paying me to host and come, that's all I need. That's my job," Myers said.

AirBnB issued the following statement to KENS 5:

Our thoughts are with the individual who has been injured and we wish him a quick recovery. There have been over 200 million guest arrivals on Airbnb and negative incidents are extremely rare. We have no tolerance for this type of behavior and we immediately banned the guest who made the reservation from the platform. We offered our assistance to local law enforcement and are currently supporting the host through our Million Dollar Host Guarantee. The overwhelming majority of AirBnb hosts and guests are good neighbors and respectful travelers, but when issues happen, we work to make things right.

KENS 5 reached out to the owner of the house, but they declined to comment.

It's unclear if the organizer of this party will face any charges. The Bexar County Sheriff's Office says it's still investigating.

In addition to a statement, AirBnB provided the following information.

Tips For Hosts:

1. Set Requirements for Your Listing: Each and every person on Airbnb has a detailed profile page with information about themselves. In order to sign up for Airbnb, you must provide a full name, date of birth, photo, phone number, and email address. Hosts can choose to require that their guests provide Airbnb a government ID before booking their listing, which then requires you as a host to do so as well.

2. Get To Know Your Guest in Advance: On the Airbnb platform, we have a safe and easy way for hosts to get to know their prospective guest before confirming a reservation. Our secure messaging tool lets you ask each other questions, and set clear expectations for the stay.

3. Read Previous Community Reviews: You also have our global community to rely on. If you’re curious what a previous host’s experience has been with a potential guest, all you need to do is check their reviews ahead of time. Both guests and hosts publicly review each other and only do so after the reservation is complete, so you know the feedback is informed, unbiased, and real.

On Background, More Safety Information:

• Background Checks: We screen all hosts and guests globally against regulatory, terrorist, and sanctions watch lists. For United States residents, we also run background checks for certain felony convictions, sex offender registrations, or significant misdemeanors.

• Risk Scoring: To prevent bad actors from ever accessing our platform in the first place, each and every Airbnb reservation is assessed for risk ahead of time. We have a real-time detection system that uses machine learning and predictive analytics to instantly evaluate hundreds of signals to flag and then stop any suspicious activity. When we detect potentially concerning behavior, our team takes a range of actions, from requesting additional information such as a government ID or credit card verification, to removing a user from the platform entirely.

• Detailed Profiles: Each and every person on Airbnb has a detailed profile page with information about themselves and their home. In order to sign up for Airbnb, you must provide a full name, date of birth, photo, phone number, and email address. Hosts can also require that guests provide a government ID before booking their listing, and then the host in turn is required to do so as well.

• Secure Messaging: Through the Airbnb platform, we also have a safe and easy way for guests and hosts to get to know each other directly before requesting or approving a reservation. Our secure on-platform messaging tool can help you break the ice, ask each other questions, and set clear expectations—something we highly recommend doing.

• 24/7 Global Response & Assistance: In the rare event that any issue should arise, Airbnb’s global Customer Service and Trust and Safety teams are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in 11 different languages to help make things right with rebooking assistance, as well as refunds, reimbursements, and insurance programs. If, for instance, you arrive at a listing and it’s not as advertised, all you need to do is reach out to our team as we are here to help.

• Host Guarantee/Host Protection Insurance: Though property damage is rare, our Host Guarantee program will reimburse eligible hosts for damages up to $1,000,000. Additionally, our Host Protection Insurance program provides primary liability coverage for up to $1 million per occurrence in the event of third party claims of bodily injury or property damage. Significant property damage (claims that were reimbursed under our Host Guarantee program for over $1,000) was reported to us 0.009% of the time. At that rate, you could host a new reservation every single day for over 27 years without expecting to file a significant property damage claim under our Host Guarantee.

• Neighbor Tool: We want to do everything we can to help our hosts be good neighbors in the places they call home. To achieve that, we have a resource for neighbors of Airbnb hosts. Anyone can go to airbnb.com/neighbors to share specific concerns they might have about a listing in their community. Hosting is a big responsibility and those who repeatedly fail to meet our standards and expectations will be subject to suspension or removal from the Airbnb community.